[embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlXBg2d2Nnc[/embedyt]Marquel, TPVs NYTimes Pyrrhic Section Correspondent was cleaning his corner, when he read Hamas Emerges Buoyant Despite Bloodshed and Devastation in Gaza. Polls show an unprecedented spike in support for Hamas despite a lack of basic needs like electricity and clean water, as Gaza residents blame others for the devastation.
Marquel admired the Palestinians for their devil-may-care attitude. They must be great for a trip to Six Flags, or even an extended cemetery visit. You can’t get a good Palestinian down, as they say in…Yemen, perhaps. But still, these people have no food, no water, no electricity, no sanitary sewage, and no homes. That’s victory! Marquel knew the secret which is that a people like that CAN’T BE DEFEATED. How can you defeat a people who celebrate four tons of explosives falling through their living room ceiling? Two thousand dead is like Christmas. Naughty or nice? No, just dead, the kids too. Well, happy holidays! You too!
These people are ready to vote into government the gang who literally can’t shoot straight. Seven thousand rockets launched, four targets hit.
And yet, we all know this is just the variation of the Janis Joplin theme: freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. Victory is having nothing to lose. Does that make sense? It’s sort of like the younger sibling who offers up all his or her toys.
Go ahead, throw them out, nothing can punish me.
Marquel visited Gaza to gauge and understand the Palestinian mood. He met a homeowner whose home no longer exists. It was literally a large pile of mostly white stone rubble.
“Let me show you,” said the owner, “my house”
We walked to the top of the rubble. He pointed in various directions.
“Living room, remodeled kitchen, two complete baths, three stories, outdoor terrace. Took two different attacks-two different attacks!-to level it. We taught them a lesson!”
I didn’t ask him what that lesson was, but it wasn’t the first time I’d heard that expression. I found a family on the beach. A mother and two daughters.
“They killed daddy, and his two boys, and their big sister. All night long they were bombing. We taught them a lesson!”
A small group of Hamas fighters were in front of the local municipal building. I asked them how they had fared in the war.
“We lost 45 men but we taught those Israelis a lesson. It took two weeks to wipe us out, can you imagine? The fearsome Israelis. Two weeks!”
Further on, I ran into two men hauling sophisticated heavy equipment. They explained they had saved it from a tunnel.“We built seven tunnels that went within 100 meters of their kibbutz. Right under their noses! It took us five years to build those tunnels and they never knew”
“So what happened to the tunnels?” I wondered.
“All destroyed by the Israelis. They’ll never forget this. We taught them a lesson.”
Like all the others I talked to, they were all Hamas followers and intended to vote for Hamas. “But why, what have they done but destroyed your homes, killed your children, made your labor worthless, and impoverished your state?”
“The Israelis did all that,” said a university professor who had lost his entire family.
“Okay, they did,” I agreed, “but what did Hamas do to prevent it or ameliorate it?”
“They showed us how to resist. They gave us our pride back.”
“And it was worth the price? It was a very heavy price.”
“Can you put a price on pride? On resisting?” He asked. “Hamas taught the Israelis a lesson. We are grateful.”
I already knew that life is not run by logic. But I never suspected how little logic meant to a disenfranchised, impoverished, people. It taught me a lesson.
***
BY MARQUEL: Who you gonna call? Hamas or Ghostbusters
Too much like Larry David…You make me very uncomfortable.
Carmen in right. I cannot or better said, I really do not want to laugh. This is so complex and we just cannot judge those poor people. Maybe they are afraid of not voting. Have you thought about that?
ditto
M, it’s a fabulous piece. Very controversial though.
Look, even your readers are afraid of liking it.
LOVE the title: who you gonna call?
very well written.
Hey, after being dead for almost a week, her relatives declared Joan Rivers, RIP, dead. Look what she had to say:
“I mock everybody, regardless of race, creed or color,” she told the Toronto Star in July. “Every joke I make, no matter how tasteless, is there to draw attention to something I really care about.”
Marquel, you did a masterful thing here…Excellent!
your daddy
Thanks. That kind of praise I don’t really deserve.
Liked this: Took two different attacks-two different attacks!-to level it. We taught them a lesson!”
Not that I know much about it, but it seemed to me to capture some of the sensibility of both sides – maybe both sides of a lot of conflicts.